Introduction

NOTE: The data and findings below are drafts subject to change and some pieces are still in the QA process.

RACE COUNTS provides a 3D view of racial equity:
OUTCOME: How well people are doing. The higher the circle, the better the outcome.
DISPARITY: How racial groups compare to one another. The further right the circle, the greater the differences by race.
IMPACT: The total population. The bigger the circle, the larger the population.


Purple counties: Gains at Risk;
Orange counties: Prosperity for the Few;
Yellow counties: Struggling to Prosper;
Red counties: Stuck and Unequal.

Race/Ethnicity Notes


1) “Other” race includes those who identify with a race outside of the specifically named categories, such as Asian, White, etc.
2) Race labels for bar charts: The “nh_” prefix signifies that a group is non-Latinx (excludes Latinx).
3) The “twoormor” group represents those who identify as Two or More Races.

Indicators

Democracy Index - UPDATED

  • There seems to be a correlation between higher outcome and lower disparity.
  • The majority of larger population counties have below average racial disparity, while the reverse is true for non-urban counties with smaller populations.
  • All of the counties in the San Joaquin Valley, except Merced, have below average outcomes in the Democracy Index. Five of them are also higher disparity.
  • Six of the 10 counties with the highest racial disparities in Democracy Index were in the Northern Sierra region.
  • All Bay Area and Central Coast counties, except for Solano and Monterey, have better than average outcomes.

Census Participation

Scatterplot

  • In general, larger population counties have higher overall Census participation rates than smaller population counties.
  • Five out of the six Central Coast counties are in the Purple Quadrant (Lower Disparity, Higher Outcome).
  • The 17 counties with the lowest census participation rates (outcomes) are all rural counties in the Northern Sierra region.

State Barchart

  • American Indian or Alaska Native, Black, and Latinx Californians had the three lowest Census participation rates, while Asian Californians have the highest.

County Barchart

Registered Voters - UPDATED

Scatterplot

  • There appears to be a relationship between higher outcomes and lower disparity, meaning as registration goes up, disparity decreases.
  • All but one of the San Joaquin Valley counties have lower than average voter registration rates. In fact, five of the eight counties with the lowest registration rates are in that region. All but two counties in the region have worse than average racial disparities.

State Barchart

  • White voters have the best (highest) registration rate in the state, with 73 of eligible White Californians registered to vote.
  • Latinx and Asian Californians have the worst rate of voter registration in the state at 57%, a rate 16 percentage points lower than the White rate.
  • Black Californians are registered to vote at a rate (64%) close to the overall statewide rate (65%).

County Barchart

Diversity of Candidates

Scatterplot

  • All five counties in the Purple Quadrant are in the Northern Sierra region.
  • The fact that there is very little variance between counties in overall outcome in this measure reflects that there is relatively equal proportional representation for each county across the various levels of government in California.
  • Los Angeles County, which has the largest population, has the fourth lowest racial disparities among its body of candidates for public office.
  • Five of the 11 counties with the largest racial disparities in their candidate pool are in the Bay Area. One notable exception is San Francisco, which has the 9th lowest racial disparity.

State Barchart

  • White Californians have by far the highest rate of representation among candidates for office, with 1.4 candidates per 100,000 residents. They are the only racial group in the entire state that have better representation than the overall statewide average.
  • American Indian and Alaska Native Californians have the worst rate of representation among candidates for office of any racial group at just 0.2 officials per 100,000 people. They have 7x less representation than White Californians.
  • Latinx Californians have nearly 3x less representation in the statewide candidate pool than White Californians.

County Barchart

Diversity of Elected Officials

Scatterplot

  • The fact that there is very little variance between counties in overall outcome in this measure reflects that there is relatively equal proportional representation for each county across the various levels of government in California.
  • Many of the counties with larger populations, such as Sacramento, Riverside, San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles, rank towards the lower end of racial disparities among their elected officials.
  • The 15 counties with the highest racial disparities in elected representation are all non-urban counties in the Northern Sierra region.

State Barchart

  • The disparity between White representation and the representation of all other racial groups in California is even wider in the statewide pool of elected than it is in the pool of candidates for office. This means White candidates are not just more likely to run, but more likely to win.

County Barchart

Voting in Presidential Elections - UPDATED

Scatterplot

  • Data is relatively sparse for this indicator, as both the outcome and disparity measures can only be reported for 27 of the 58 counties in the state.
  • There appears to be a positive relationship between outcome and disparity, meaning as disparity increases, voter turnout also increases.
  • In Fresno, the county with the largest disparities, nearly 9 in 10 AIAN voters voted. However, only 4 in 10 Latinx or Black voters and 3 in 10 Asian voters voted.
  • Six of the 10 counties with the worst voter turnout rates are in the San Joaquin Valley, three of the remaining are in Southern California.

State Barchart

  • White Californians have the highest turnout rate in the state for presidential elections, voting a rate well above the state average.
  • Although White voter rates are still the highest, the differences in voting rates between racial groups in the state is less pronounced for presidential elections than it is for midterm elections. For presidential elections.
  • Asian voters turnout is 18.5 percentage points higher for presidential elections compared to midterm elections.
  • Pacific Islanders have the second lowest presidential turnout (among 7 groups) which is well below average, but the 3rd highest midterm turnout.

County Barchart

Voting in Midterm Elections

Scatterplot

  • Five of the six counties in the Red Quadrant (Higher Disparity, Lower Outcome) are in the San Joaquin Valley.
  • Sonoma County has both the highest rate of voting in midterm elections in the state and the second lowest racial disparities.
  • There seems to be a relationship between lower racial disparities and better overall voter turnout for midterm elections, with relatively few counties firmly in the Yellow or Orange Quadrants.

State Barchart

  • White voters are the most likely of any racial group to turn out for midterm elections, voting at a rate 1.5 times higher than Asian and and Latinx voters.
  • Asian and Latinx voters turnout rates are 10 percentage points below the statewide turnout rate.

County Barchart